Camptothecin, a natural product originally found in China, but now grown in many countries, was isolated and purified by Wall and his coworkers in 1966 (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 88, 3888, 1966). This compound was initially tested against the mouse leukemia L 1210 system and showed good activity. Since it proved to be a potent anticancer in animal models, camptothecin was quickly tested in human clinical trials. At this time, unfortunately, anticancer activity was not found; instead, severe toxicity was observed for those patients who participated in the trials (Gottlieb et al, Cancer Chemother. Rep. 54, 461, 1970, and 56, 103, 1972, Muggia et al, Cancer Chemother. Rep. 56, 515, 1972, Moertel et al, Cancer Chemother. Rep. 56, 95, 1972, and Schaeppi et al, Cancer Chemother. Rep. 5:25, 1974). Trials were accordingly discontinued. The reason for the failure of the early trial was later found to be an incorrect drug formulation selected. Camptothecin is insoluble in water itself. In order to use the drug for i.v. administration, camptothecin was converted to its sodium form (CPT sodium carboxylate). This form although water-soluble, is practically devoid of anticancer activity, and quite toxic. For example, a careful evaluation of these agents in animal models made by Wani et al revealed that the sodium salt is only 10-20% as potent as the parent camptothecin (J. Med. Chem. 23, 554, 1980). In addition, important parameters for anticancer activity in the camptothecin series have now been established (Wall et al., Ann. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 17, 117, 1977). The intact lactone form with an .alpha.-hydroxyl group at the position 20 of the molecule is believed to be essential for antitumor activity.
Keeping the molecule as an intact lactone form is the key for success of the treatment. In the laboratory, camptothecin and its derivatives have shown a promising activity against a wide spectrum of human tumors grown in xenografts in nude mice (Giovanella et al., Cancer Res. 51, 3052, 1991, and Natelson et al., Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci. 803, 224, 1996), but much less activity was observed in human clinical trials. This difference in antitumor activity has been associated with the finding that the hydrolysis of lactone to carboxylate of the molecule is much faster in human plasma than in mouse. For example, about 50% of 9-nitrocamptothecin is present as lactone form in mice plasma, but only 5% of the molecule can be found as the lactone form in human plasma. The lactone camptothecin molecule is not stable in human. More studies on the stability of camptothecin derivatives in human serum have been conducted by Burke et al. (Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci. 803, 29. 1996).
Clearly, there is a need to obtain a camptothecin compound that keeps the molecule as an intact lactone when it is in circulation in the body. In other words, a camptothecin product having longer biological life span is wanted. A number of attempts have been made to obtain protected camptothecin derivatives, but none of the compounds has been disclosed to significantly increase the biological life span. U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,579 relates to the preparation of several water-soluble camptothecin esters by the esterification of camptothecin with amino acids as acylating reagents at the 20 position. U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,159 relates to the esterification of 10,11-dioxymethylenecamptothecin with amino acid derivatives as acylating reagents at the position 20 to provide several water-soluble compounds. These two patents use the same acylating reagents (amino acids) for the esterification reaction, and the products are water-soluble, thus they are not related to water-insoluble camptothecin esters and are not within the scope of the present invention. U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,316 discloses esterification of camptothecins with various different acylating reagents rather than amino acids to provide a wide range water-insoluble ester compounds of camptothecins. The compounds disclosed in this invention significantly increase the biological life span while maintaining the inherent antitumor activity and lowering the toxicity. However, the previous patent did not use any aromatic functionality for the esterification reaction. The present invention relates, for the first time, to making aromatic esters of camptothecins.